Photos
by msk1701
Summary: Set within the It's All in Your Head continuity. Ever take the time to just sit back and look at old photos and relive those memories? Well here's what happens when our two favorite pilots do so.
1. Chapter 1

Kara Adama sat cross-legged on the living room floor sorting through a large pile of photos that lay scattered around her. She was busy putting them into two piles, one to go into the latest Adama family album and the other to be put into boxes to be occasionally taken out but more or less be forgotten.

She and Lee always had a lot of photos lying around. Perhaps they were making up for years of being without cameras or maybe they had always been shutterbugs but had never known it. But one thing was for sure. Ever since the day Billy had been born, the number of photos they took had literally increased tenfold, and there were days when Kara wondered if it was possible to be killed by an avalanche of photo paper.

The sorting was quickly going along as Kara flipped one photo after another onto one of the two piles, occasionally pausing to take closer look.

Lee and Billy on the floor with Lee lying on his side, facing the camera with one hand lightly resting on Billy's little tummy: Album.

Kara and Billy laughing as she amused him with a stuffed blue parrot: Album.

The parrot as a blue blur being thrown at the camera after Lee took the picture even though she told him to put the camera away: Box-although Lee was probably going to sneak it into the album.

Bill and Laura jerking back in surprise after the Old Man's namesake suddenly woke up screaming: Album-and Kara made a mental note to send a copy over to the other Adamas.

A blurry picture of what looked to be three feet: Box.

And…hello…

Billy smiling at the camera: She was going to frame this one. In fact, she was sure that they had a frame somewhere…

Kara put the photo aside carefully and got up to find the frame.

But first, it was to the nursery to check on Billy. He was probably going to be up from his nap soon.

A/N: I know. I know. Lousy start. But I promise it'll get better. So please don't hurt me.


	2. The Barbeque

A new diaper and a feeding later, Kara walked out of the nursery with Billy in her arms.

"So, do you want to help Mommy find a frame for your picture? Huh?" She asked, lightly bouncing Billy in her arms.

Her son gave her a gummy smile before he leaned his head down and proceeded to drool all over her shoulder.

"Hey!" Kara exclaimed in mock anger. "We talked about this before and you promised me you wouldn't do that again."

Billy just looked at her with those blue eyes of his. Gods, how was she ever going to discipline this kid when he got older? He was every bit the charmer the older Adama men were, and would probably grow up to be just as oblivious to it as they were.

"You're going to be the death of me, you know that, right?"

Her baby paid her no mind and turned his attention elsewhere.

"Huh? What are you looking at? The pictures on the wall?" Kara asked in a sing-song voice.

They moved closer to the many framed photos that hung on the wall of their upstairs hallway.

"Look, there's Grandma and Grandpa at Daddy's graduation from law school…and here's Mommy and Daddy looking liked wet rats. And see Daddy holding Hera upside down?"

Kara was pointing at one of her favorite photos. It had been taken in the months after the Colonials had begun permanently settling on Earth and showed Kara and Lee soaking wet, covered in mud and grass. But despite their sorry state, the two of them were laughing hard. Kara was holding onto Lee for support as he half held her up with one arm and held Hera Agathon upside down with the other.

Kara remembered once telling the Old Man that Billy must take after his father because he rarely, if ever, fussed and often just quietly observed the world with his big blue eyes. The Old Man started laughing so hard that it took a whack on the back from Laura to get his guffaws down to chuckles. According to him (once he had calmed down enough to speak), Lee had been a mischievous little terror until Zak was born, when something seemed to click in the boy's head and he turned into the stick in the mud everyone knew. And Zak, despite Lee's best efforts reign in his brother, had been even worse.

She'd smiled when she heard that about her husband. She could see the playful side of him hiding just beneath the surface. She'd tried for years to get it out and achieved some modicum of success, but it wasn't until they had found Earth and the constant threat of death had disappeared that Lee began to cut loose more openly and have fun without becoming self-conscious.

0000000000

It was a beautiful sunny day, with clear blue skies and not a cloud in sight. A perfect day for flying.

Or a barbeque.

The Agathons had called together their new neighbors and former members of Galactica's crew who lived nearby to celebrate their moving in to their brand new house.

Kara stood on the Agathons' back porch, sipping at a glass of orange juice (after years of water and moonshine, she couldn't get enough of the fresh stuff), taking in a sight that many thought would never again be possible.

The weather was hot, the music was loud, and the beer was plentiful as people walked, talked, and played indoors and out.

Children ran around screaming, with parents occasionally admonishing them to be careful.

Helo manned the grill, partially obscured by billowing smoke, wearing an apron that said "World's Greatest Dad". Someone, probably Sharon, had taken a marker and moved the apostrophe so that it now read "Worlds' Greatest Dad".

Kara watched with a smile as Lee not-so-quietly argued with Sharon over the pros and cons of buying a new oven, with Lee the amateur chef extolling the virtues of propane while Sharon wavered on keeping their old electric oven.

It made Kara happy to see that Lee had finally gotten over his prejudice against Sharon and that they had become friends, but it also occasionally saddened her to know of the circumstances under which the friendship had been forged.

Lee rarely talked about how he had been in the aftermath of her "death" and before he rescued her, and Sharon, out of respect for Lee, wouldn't tell Kara anything. She tried asking Helo, but he would only tell her that Lee had all but shut himself off and that it was Sharon-having known extreme loss herself-who first reached out to Lee and helped him reintegrate into the crew.

She stood there, lost in her thoughts for a moment, before snapping back to reality and realizing that it had been a very long moment.

Kara saw Lee lying on his back in the grass with Hera beside him. She didn't know exactly what they were doing, but she could see that Lee was pointing towards the sky and talking and smiling while Hera was practically rolling on the ground laughing.

Then the little girl suddenly jumped up and ran over to the Old Man, who was sitting under a tree with Laura, and whispered something in his ear. At his nod, she gave out a huge laugh and ran off to play with the other children.

Kara walked over to where Lee was soaking up the sun with his eyes closed and lied down next to him.

"Hey, Kara."

"How did you know it was me?"

Lee smirked, his eyes still closed. "Your hygiene leaves a lot to be desired."

Laughing, she lightly punched him in the arm.

"Ow!"

"So…what were you talking to Hera about?"

Lee turned to look at Kara, the half-smile that always mystified her on his face. "Just about the time my friends and I tried to fly a homemade hang glider."

Kara laughed in disbelief.

Lee continued: "It was high school. And we thought we had everything figured out. The design looked good and we were going to fly it into a lake just in case anything went wrong mid-flight."

"And?" Kara couldn't wait to hear what went wrong.

"Well…" Lee said teasingly.

"C'mon, Lee." Kara said, nudging him with her elbow. "Don't leave me hanging like this."

"Let's just say that we didn't factor in my tripping while running down the pier and ignored the fact that it was nearly winter so the water was freezing."

Once Kara's laughter had died down, they lay in companionable silence and stared at the sky for a few minutes. Then Kara heard Lee let out an almost inaudible sigh. She rolled onto her side to face him.

"You miss it, don't you?"

Lee turned his head to look at her. "Miss what?"

"Being in the sky." She said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

He looked almost wistful as he looked back up.

"Sometimes. But then I remember what we had to do every time we got into our cockpits. And when the stakes got higher after you…" Lee suddenly went silent and sat up.

Kara sat up beside Lee and put an arm around his shoulders, leaning in close to reassure him that she was there. She could feel him trembling from the memories.

"Hey," she whispered into his ear. "You're not allowed to feel bad anymore. You hear me?"

Lee nodded slightly.

"Because," Kara continued. "That overrated bright and shiny future? Well we've got it right here, and I'm going to make sure that you and I are going to do every gods damned clichéd thing there is to do, because I'm not about to let this go."

Lee turned his head so that they were nose to nose. "I love you," he said. "You know that, right?"

"Yeah," Kara whispered back, chuckling quietly. "I know."

She was about to lean in for a kiss when a throat was loudly cleared behind them and they froze.

"What are they doing, Daddy?" came the giggling voice of Hera.

"They're being icky, sweetie," Helo replied. "And what do we do to icky things?"

"We wash them!" Hera shouted gleefully.

It was then that Kara and Lee turned their heads to see that Hera was standing there with a garden hose pointed straight at them.

"Now, Sharon!"


	3. Snow

A/N: There's fluff and there's fluff. Hope I'm not being too heavy handed with it. What do you guys think? Also, this chapter is late in coming because it just grew larger and larger. There's actually more to this. I'm currently thinking about spinning it off into its own piece.

Billy began squirming in Kara's arms, babbling insistently in a way that could only mean that he wanted down.

After quickly making sure that all the upstairs doors were closed and the gate on the stairs was secure, she set Billy down.

Kara sat down on the ledge of the window at the end of the hallway and watched her son crawl back and forth, babbling and squealing with happy abandon.

She smiled at Billy's innocence and how he found even the most mundane things at his eye level to be fascinating and wondered what it would be like to have every little discovery be a part of one big, happy adventure.

But then again, she did sort of know what that was like. There was a photo hanging on the wall beside that had been taken by Darlo, their next door neighbor, on the day she and Lee saw snow for the first time in several years. Her back was to his chest as he held her close, his arms wrapped around her. Her own hands were hooked onto his arms as she pressed back into him. The engagement ring she had started wearing the night before the picture was taken was clearly visible.

Kara had long considered winter to be a dreary, lonely time. Then they found Earth and Lee took her out to discover all the wonders of the season that she had missed out on. From that first winter on, she looked forward to seeing the first snowfall of the year, knowing that she could share in all its joys with the love of her life.

And now that she had a child of her own, she looked forward to introducing him to the wonder that is winter to him as well.

0000000000

This was not a typical morning.

For one thing, there was a definite chill to the air in the bedroom.

For another, Kara was the one who was up first and gazing at the sleeping form of her boyfriend.

Or was it fiancé now?

There was another thing. The yet unfamiliar sensation of an engagement ring nestled on her finger turned her attention away from Lee's face to the hand resting on his bare chest.

The ring on her hand wasn't fancy. It was a simple band of white gold with a single stone that wasn't too small or too big.

The proposal the night before had been straight forward and her answer had been a simple "Yes".

All in all the whole deal had been no fuss, no frills.

So much like her.

So much like him.

So much like them.

It was all so perfect that it made her all tingly inside.

She tried wracking her brain for a better word to describe how she felt. But there really wasn't anything else.

She tingled.

Kara lay back down, securing the blanket firmly around the two of them, burying her face against Lee's shoulder.

Tingly.

It was a nice feeling.

So was the sensation of Lee's breathing changing rhythm as he woke up.

Kara looked up in time to see him open his eyes. She immediately lifted herself up and dropped back down on top of Lee with a soft thud. Their noses were barely touching as his blue eyes slowly focused on her hazel ones.

"Hey," he said softly in greeting.

"Hey."

A beat passed as Lee softly brushed the backs of his fingers against Kara's cheek. She shivered. Partly from the sensation and partly from the cold air that had come in under the blanket.

"Cold?"

"Kinda," Kara answered truthfully.

Lee smiled mischievously as he rolled over so that Kara was underneath him. "Want me to warm you up?"

"Tempting," she snaked a hand behind his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. "But after you're done," she let out a soft moan as Lee nibbled down her neck, "the house will still be cold."

Lee popped his head back up. "What if I don't stop?" With that he slipped under the covers.

"Lee…" Kara moaned as his mouth and hands traveled lower and lower down her body.

Her back arched as Lee's hands slowly slid back up from her hips to her ribs…and just as she was about to let out another moan…

He began tickling her.

"Ah! Frak! Lee! Stop!" she gasped as she writhed and kicked to get Lee to stop.

"Really?" he pinned her arms and legs down and smiled at her. "I think you're enjoying this."

"Maybe…but you're letting all the cold air in under the blanket."

"So…let me guess…you want your fiancé to go out there and risk dying of hypothermia while trying to do something about the heating just so you can be warm?" Lee's complaints were not serious though. He was already moving to get out of bed.

"I knew I agreed to marry you for a reason." As a consolation prize, she grabbed his face and kissed him seductively, her lips and tongue promising Lee that much more was to come when he returned.

Lee rolled off the bed and grabbed the sweat pants and t-shirt that had been thrown onto the floor the night before.

"Frak…" he hissed. "This floor is frigid! We probably should get slippers to wear around the house."

Kara had to laugh at that. "Slippers? How old are you? Sixty?"

Lee was about to say something as he pulled his shirt on but thought to himself: 'Ah, let her find out for herself.'

"Be right back." He gave Kara a quick kiss before leaving.

Kara lay back down and burrowed herself into the warmth on Lee's side of the bed. She smiled to herself as she thought about the ways she loved Lee and the ways he showed he loved her when his voice suddenly called out: "Kara! You gotta come see this!"

There was an urgent tone in Lee's voice that she rarely heard that made her quickly wrap a sheet around her body and run out of their bedroom.

"What? What is it? Frak! The floor's freezing!" Maybe getting slippers wasn't such a silly idea.

Lee was standing by the window at the end of their upstairs hallway, looking intently outside. As he heard Kara approach, he turned, grabbed her so her back was to his chest, and turned so that they were both looking outside.

"Look," he whispered.

"My gods…" was all she could say, the cold floor completely forgotten as they stared at a sight neither had seen in what seemed to be forever.

Outside, their entire neighborhood was covered in a thick layer of snow. And it was still falling. In fat flakes that lazily floated down from the sky.

"It's snowing, Lee. It's actually snowing…"

Kara looked up to Lee with a look of wide-eyed innocence. Knowing that he was sharing something so amazing and wonderful with the woman he loved thrilled him to the core.

They smiled at each other. Thinking the same thing at the same time.

"I'm getting out there first!"

"No, you're not!"

"Oh, yes I am!"

"Oh, really?"

"Ah! Lee!"

They raced each other to their bedroom, rushed to get dressed, and get outside to be the first one to set foot in the brand new snow.

It wasn't a clean race. Competitions between them were always dirty. Kara had just reached the front door when Lee grabbed her by the waist and threw her over his shoulder, bodily carrying her outside and dumping her onto the ground.

"What say we call it a draw?" Lee asked, offering Kara his hand to help her up.

She took his hand, knowing that he knew her too well to let himself be pulled down by her. Instead, she pulled herself up, grabbing a handful of snow with her other hand and shoving it in his face in one smooth motion.

"Now…" she brushed his face off and gave him a quick kiss. "We call it a draw."

"Well good morning, you two!" came the voice of Patty, their next door neighbor, as she walked out of her own house with two bundled up little children. "You remember my grandchildren: Mikey and Teri."

"Hey, guys." Kara and Lee walked up to the fence that divided their yards.

Patty leaned down to her grandchildren, "Come on kids. Why don't you go get the sled from the garage? Maybe your grandfather will be out by then."

The two kids eagerly ran off.

"Darlo having some trouble this morning?" Lee asked.

"No," Patty rolled her eyes in mock exasperation born from knowing her husband too well. "He just insists on taking photos of every little thing we do with the children. And…Lee asked you to marry him didn't he?"

Kara smiled almost shyly as she looked down and fingered her ring. "Yeah. He did. Did the ring give it away?"

"That. And you glow. And who do you think recommended the jeweler?"

Kara jerked her head up to look from Lee to Patty in surprise. "You?"

"Well of course, silly. Darlo tries, but I swear, if his mother hadn't given him her engagement ring, he probably would have proposed with a metal washer."

The three of them laughed at the thought, and Darlo-as if on cue-came out of his house waving a camera over his head.

"Found it, Patty!"

"Well bring it over here! Lee proposed to Kara last night!"

"What? He did?"

"That's what I said!"

Kara and Lee chuckled to themselves as the watched their neighbors verbally spar with each other. It was almost like what they did with each other.

Lee pulled Kara close and pressed a kiss to her temple. He wondered if he and Kara could be like that as they grew older. And when Kara looked up at him with love written across her face, he knew that they were going to be alright for a long time to come.

A flash suddenly broke them out from their little world.

Darlo had snapped a photo of them and they looked up to see him, Patty, and their grandkids looking at them with wide grins on their faces.

"Well, we'll leave you two alone now," Patty said. "Come on, kids. Let's go sledding!"

As the four of them began walking away Darlo stopped and slightly turned back to face them, suddenly remembering something. "Oh, and guys…"

"Yeah?" Lee replied.

"If you're willing to part with a dollar, Mikey here," Darlo lightly slapped his grandson on the shoulder, "will shovel your driveway for ya."

"I'll take him up on it," Lee said with a laugh as Mikey let out a theatrical moan.

"Come on kids, let's go sledding!"

Patty led the children away, with Darlo following close behind, holding the toboggan.

"Lee?" Kara asked as she watched their neighbors walk off with their grandchildren to enjoy the snow.

"Hmm?" Lee mumbled absently.

She turned around in his arms so that they were facing each other.

"Do you think we can be like that?"

Lee gave her a small smile.

"Yeah," he said pulling Kara close to his body. He placed a small kiss on her forehead as their arms tightened around each other. "I know we can."

0000000000

A small hand landing her on her foot broke Kara out of her reverie as she looked down to see two big blue eyes staring back up at her.

"Hey, honey," she cooed as she bent down to pick Billy up.

"You know…you'll get to see snow for the first time in a month or so," Kara said as she settled her son onto her lap. "You're going to love it."

"And," she gave Billy a conspiratorial grin as he played with a stray lock of her hair, "when you're old enough, we're going have so much fun messing with your father."

Lee's voice suddenly rang through the house. "I'm home!"

"Speak of the devil…we're upstairs, Lee!"

A/N: Darlo is based on and named after a custodian at school who had befriended me in my first year of college. It was a particularly low point in my life and my conversations with him were the only bright spots during a particularly dismal span of several months. Everyone should find their own Darlo. He turned out to be a lifesaver.


	4. After the Fight

Lee's arrival upstairs was preceded by several shopping bags being thrown over the baby gate before he lightly hopped over the gate himself.

"Show off," Kara muttered with a roll of her eyes as she lifted Billy off of her lap and held him more securely in her arms. She got up and walked to her husband, who was bending down to pick up the bags he had brought.

"Did you get everything?" she asked as Lee straightened up.

"Yes," Lee sighed-this was a routine they went through ever since he forgot to buy juice one day. "I got everything."

"Juice?"

"Yes."

"Milk?"

"Yes, Kara."

A beat passed as Kara ran their usual shopping list through her head. A sly smile slowly spread across her face. "Wet wipes."

Lee just smirked and said, "Got them," while waving the bag he held in his left hand.

"Darn."

Lee cocked an eyebrow at his wife when she said that.

"What?" Kara gave him an annoyed look. "I can do clean and wholesome."

He decided to play the innocent in this exchange. "I didn't say anything. Do I get a kiss now?"

Kara lifted Billy up towards his father's face. "Go on, Billy. Give Daddy a kiss."

Lee leaned in got a wet spot on his chin from his son. As he moved to kiss his wife, she pulled back.

"Put the diapers away and I'll think about it."

Lee walked into the nursery with a smile on his face and a shake of his head.

When he walked back out, Kara and Billy were in front of the picture wall they had upstairs. She was murmuring something to their child that he couldn't hear. He leaned against the door frame and drank in the sight; storing it in his memory.

After a long moment, Lee walked up behind Kara and wrapped his arms around his wife and son. She automatically pressed back against him and turned her head to look at him.

"So, I thought about it," she said.

He pulled them a little closer and deeply breathed in her scent. "And?"

Kara snaked one arm up behind Lee's head while making sure that Billy was secure in the other. She pulled him down for a soft kiss and let go, immediately bringing her arm back to her son.

Lee placed another kiss on her temple before resting his chin on her shoulder. "So," he said softly. "What have you two been up to?"

She turned her head slightly towards him. "Just looking at some photos. Reliving memories."

Lee's eyes wandered to one picture that was hanging nearby. It had been taken sometime in the week after one of their biggest fights, while they were working through this latest development in their relationship. It captured the two of them in a quiet moment-sitting on a bench, her head resting on his shoulder as he looked down at their entwined hands, completely unaware of the rest of the world.

He'd found that as time passed quiet moments like those came around more often. It wasn't that they stopped fighting, but their fights became fewer and farther between.

She could still be the foul-mouthed pain in the ass while there were times when he reverted back to being a sanctimonious stick in the mud, but it seemed as if they were reaching a happy middle ground between them. Although…he doubted they would ever truly become alike like some couples.

Their relationship wasn't a perfect one. They had their fair share of differences. There was occasional friction, but they worked past it. In fact, they thrived on it and how they complemented each other.

That pretty much made things…well…perfect.

He just had to smile at that thought.

0000000000

Lee stepped out of their bathroom to see that Kara was already in bed, facing away from his side with the covers firmly wrapped around her. He considered sleeping on the couch again in order to avoid the awkwardness of sharing a bed with the woman he was currently barely on speaking terms with.

He couldn't remember why they were like this, even if the fight had only been the day before.

It had started out as a minor tiff. That much he remembered. What he couldn't recall was who said the wrong thing first.

Knowing the two of them, there was the distinct possibility that they both did at the same time.

But after a loud and heated argument that spanned the entire day, the entire house, and almost half of their glasses, Kara ended up locking herself in their bedroom. She refused to come out and let him in that morning only because they both had to go to work.

She hadn't kicked him out or run out of the house herself-he took that as a good sign-but she neither was she talking to him. In fact, she was positively icy. And that scared him more than an explosive Kara.

The couch was appearing more and more appealing with each passing second as he looked at the back of her head, but he steeled himself, remembering that all of the problem of their past came around because one or the other or both were unwilling to face the other head on.

He sat down on his side of the bed and leaned over and laid his hand on Kara's shoulder.

She shrugged it off.

Lee placed his hand on Kara's shoulder once again. "Kara…"

And, again, she tried to forcefully shrug it off. This time, however, he kept his grip firm and didn't let his hand leave her shoulder.

"Kar…"

"I'm still not talking to you, Lee."

Not much. But it was a start.

"Kara…I...I thi-…I mean…What I'm try-…" Lee dropped his chin to his chest, frustrated at his inability to form the words he wanted to say. Emotions suddenly began to roil through his body like a storm as they finally came bubbling to the surface after being kept in check all day.

"Gods, Kara. How did we get here? I mean…I don't even remember how this all started…" Lee struggled to keep his voice from breaking.

"I-…I'm sorry, Kara. For everything I said and did yesterday. I know I can be a complete jerk and I…Kara could you say something? Please?" He was begging now, and it really didn't matter, but Kara didn't move. It seemed as if they weren't going to go anywhere tonight.

He leaned down and placed a kiss on Kara's cheek. When he pulled back he saw that there were two wet spots where his eyes had been. His tears.

Lee gently wiped his tears away with his thumb. "I love you," he managed to hoarsely whisper before getting out of their bedroom as quick as he could in order to be alone with his emotions.

Much later that night, just as sleep was about to take him, Lee felt the couch cushions shift as Kara sat down. He nervously kept his eyes closed, not knowing what was going to happen next.

Then, he felt it: her slightly trembling hand gently stroking his face.

He couldn't stop his sudden intake of breath at the sensation. It reminded him so much of when she had done the same thing right after he had been shot while rescuing her. He opened his eyes as he felt her hand come to a rest cupping his cheek to see her soft face looking back at him.

He couldn't make out much in the dim light that streamed through the downstairs' windows, but he could tell that her eyes were glistening and her cheeks were wet with tears.

"What's wrong?"

Kara tried to say something, but no words could make it out of her mouth and she let out a sob instead.

Lee immediately sat up and pulled her close to him as he could, ignoring his hip's protests over his awkward position.

He held her tight as she herself let out the emotions she had been bottling up.

They stayed like that for what seemed like hours, slowly rocking back and forth.

Lee whispered to Kara, telling her that everything would be alright, that he was there for her, and that he loved her, as her sobs slowly quieted and her grip on his shirt loosened.

Kara slowly pulled back to look at him. "I'm sorry, too, Lee," she said. "I'm sorry for all the things I said to you yesterday. I-"

She didn't finish what she was going to say. She grabbed Lee's face and pulled him into a desperate, bruising kiss. Their tongues danced as they tightly held onto each other, letting their actions say what their words couldn't.

They finally broke apart for air and held each other until they caught their breaths.

"It's cold upstairs, Lee," Kara whispered into his ear.

Lee nodded in understanding and they both stood up. He kissed Kara deeply once more and their tongues mingled and tasted briefly before he pulled back to look into her eyes.

Wordlessly, he bent down and hooked an arm behind her knees and scooped her up.

Her arms tightened around his neck.

Their eyes never left each other's as Lee carried Kara upstairs to their bedroom.

0000000000

"Let's go downstairs," Lee said, plucking Billy out of Kara's arms. The child immediately began playing with his father's breast pocket, trying to see what was in there. "I got something special for dinner."

"Special, huh? It better not be like last time," Kara began moving for the stairs. "I was sick for a week."

"Two days," Lee retorted, following her.

"Well it felt like a week."

"Uh huh."

"Hey! I was in pain and you weren't helping."

"You didn't want me taking care of you?"

"I didn't want you hovering."

"What was I supposed to do? Get you a bell?"

"Now there's an idea…"

"No."

"No?"

"No."

"You sure you don't want to rethink…"


	5. Viva Las Vegas

They had put Billy down for the night, and Kara, as always, made a beeline for the bathroom.

Lee, meanwhile, wandered downstairs to the living room and saw the two piles of photos Kara had made on the floor. He picked them up, careful not to mix the two, and dropped onto the couch to take a look.

He was trying to make heads or tails of a photo that looked to be of three blurry feet when Kara plopped down on the couch, languidly stretching herself out, not caring about the fact that her husband happened to be sitting there first.

"So," Lee leaned forward and reached over Kara to drop the pile he had been looking at and to grab the other pile of photos on the coffee table. "What do you think of this latest batch?"

She shifted her position so that she was looking up at him. "They're nice. There's one picture of Billy that…"

The expression on Kara's face shifted as she remembered something she had meant to do much earlier in the day.

"Ugh…the frame!"

She sat up so quickly that Lee didn't have time to react and the photos he held in his hands went flying all over the floor.

He chuckled as he got up to pick up the photos, listening to the sounds of his wife's footsteps as she moved through the house. He loved little moments like this.

A framed photograph on the side table caught his attention as he stood after picking up the last photo. It showed him and Kara holding each other in front of a white wall lit by blue light, all smiles and happiness. She was even wearing a wreath of fake flowers in her hair.

Kara had made the frame herself; incorporating elements of the night that photo had been taken that only the two of them knew about.

0000000000

Leave it to Lee to know exactly what she needed.

Any other man seeing her pushed to the breaking point over wedding arrangements would have told her to take a day for herself. That peace, quiet, and perhaps a trip to the spa would do her some good.

They'd have probably ended up with a diamond-shaped indentation on their forehead.

Not Lee.

He took one look at Kara, called in a few favors, and told her to pack a bag because they were going to Las Vegas for the weekend.

He made sure that the only thoughts running through her mind were of the money she won at cards that morning and the prospect of more fun to come.

Only then did he dare to tell her that he had taken the liberty of booking her into the hotel spa for that afternoon.

He half-expected to see her fist come flying at him and was pleasantly surprised when she jumped him instead.

Later that night, a much more relaxed Kara walked down the Vegas strip with Lee holding her hand, enjoying the sights and sounds. As much as she loved the slower pace of their new life together, Kara still occasionally needed the hustle and bustle of a big city where she could cut loose and not care about who was watching.

And Kara loved Lee for realizing that she did. Usually before she ever realized it.

She looked up at him when she felt his arm come up around her shoulders to see him looking at her with pure adoration in his eyes. It thrilled her to the core to see how much he cared about her and she knew that he could see the same light shining in her eyes. She could see it every time she looked in a mirror.

And it was all because of him.

They stopped walking and Lee turned her to face him. She was about to say something, but there was something about the way Lee ran his hands down her arms to take hold of her own caused her to pause. Then he looked at her dead in the eye and said with all due seriousness, "Marry me, Kara."

Kara stared at him as if he was growing a third eye. "Uh, Lee…you already asked me to marry you, and I said yes…remember?" She raised their joined hands so that he could see the engagement ring he had bought for her.

"No, I mean marry me here. Now."

"Now?"

"Yes, now. Forget all the wedding planning and Laura going overboard with every little detail and every little thing potentially going out of control."

Kara could see the excitement dancing in Lee's eyes and couldn't help but begin to feel pulled in by his enthusiasm.

"Forget the shoes that hurt your feet, the dress that weighs a ton, the fact that the headpiece gives you a headache, the fact that Laura's extending the guest list by the minute…Let's find a small chapel somewhere and have it just be you, me, and whoever it is that'll perform the ceremony."

Her eyes watered as she cupped Lee's face. "You actually listened to me complaining."

"Couldn't help it, Kara," Lee replied, placing his hands on her hips and pulling her closer. "You get pretty loud when you're pissed."

"Shut up!"

Lee let out a small laugh as he kissed Kara's nose. "So…what do you say?"

Kara bit her lip as she thought about it. Then she looked up at him with a smile. "OK. Let's do it!"

Lee smiled back. "I love you."

"I love you too…but no Elvis impersonators, OK? They freak me out."

0000000000

Kara came up behind Lee and ran her fingers through his hair to pull his head back to look at her.

"That was a fun weekend wasn't it?" she asked with a knowing smirk.

Lee said, "Yeah, it was," as she clambered over the back of the couch to fall across his lap once again.

He fingered the two rings that were incorporated into the frame's design. The cheap gold bands had long since turned green.

"So," he turned his attention to Kara. "What made you run off like that?"

She grabbed the photos he held in his hand and replaced them with a silver picture frame.

Lee turned the frame slowly in his hands. "What's this for?"

Kara shushed him as she quickly looked through the photos and found the one she was looking for. "Ah hah!" she crowed.

She grabbed the frame back from her husband and quickly opened the back to insert the photo she had selected. Lee tried leaning over to see which one it was, but Kara just lightly slapped him back with a look of warning.

"You'll see it soon enough, Lee," she said as she replaced the back of the frame. "And…here we go."

She shoved the frame into his face and he saw their son smiling up at him.

He smiled at the memory of taking that photo, hovering with a camera in his hands, waiting for the perfect moment.

"So, which one was this?" Lee asked. He took the frame out of Kara's hands as she sat up to snuggle up against him.

"I dunno," she said into his shoulder. "I lost count at around forty two."

Lee chuckled softly as he brought an arm up and around Kara. "We made a cute kid, didn't we?"

Kara reached up to turn his head towards her. "The cutest."

And she pulled him towards her for a soft kiss.


	6. The Big Day

A/N: Bit of a retcon here. I previously wrote in "It's All in Your Head" that Lee got married in his dress uniform, but I think this new image is more appealing.

It was Lee's turn to use the bathroom now, and Kara tiptoed into the nursery. She peeked over the side of the crib to watch the sleeping form of her son and marveled at how much he looked like his father in slumber. They even turned their heads in the same direction.

"Sleep tight, honey," Kara whispered and pressed a kiss to her fingers before lightly touching Billy's soft cheek.

She glided out into the hallway with well-practiced ease and made her way back to her bedroom, pausing, as she occasionally did, to take a look at the wedding photo that was hung prominently on the wall. It showed her and Lee standing under an archway, his arms around her waist, hers around his neck, both smiling widely for the camera.

Lee looked as handsome as always in his tuxedo, while she "simply looked beautiful" as her husband always told her whenever they talked about that day.

Kara's face broke out into a dreamy smile as she remembered how all the hellish memories of Laura hijacking the wedding planning simply disappeared the moment Lee first saw her in her dress as she walked down the aisle. She could swear that his eyes danced with a little extra twinkle whenever he looked at her from that day on.

She walked back to the bedroom, lost in thoughts of what most people considered to be their wedding day.

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"Costanza! Get that fraking camera out of my face or I will do the universe a service and make sure you'll never procreate!"

Hot Dog popped his head up from behind the huge camera he was pointing at her. "Take it up with the Admiral!" he whined.

"NOW!"

Kara smirked as she watched Hot Dog scramble out of the room. She still had it.

She heard Sharon laughing softly as she entered the room. "Don't you think you were being too hard on the poor guy? He's just doing his job."

Kara jerked a hand up as a sign of warning. "Don't start, Sharon. I will get up and kick your ass if you do."

She tried shooting a glare at her maid of honor, but the hairdresser standing behind her grabbed her head with a vise-like grip and turned it back so that she was facing straight ahead. It appeared as if she wasn't going to be doing anything but sit still until the woman was finished.

There was something about the wiry little woman that made even Kara fear her. A fact that had amused Lee to no small degree.

But now that there was nothing in the room to direct her energy at, Kara could feel the nervousness beginning to bubble within her.

Why was she so anxious? There was nothing to be anxious about. Today was just for show. They had done the big thing already. But there was her knee bouncing up and down all on its own.

"Would it help if I told you that Lee is just as nervous?" Sharon offered as she sat down beside Kara.

"No." Kara squeaked as her eyes went wide. Lee was supposed to be the rational one who calmed her down when things got to be too much.

Her nerves weren't helped when she heard Laura ordering someone around before she breezed into the room with an ever-present clipboard.

"How's everything going in here?" the former president asked, paying more attention to Kara's hair than Kara herself.

As much as she liked Lee's stepmother, she sometimes found it hard to forget that the woman was the source of so many of her troubles, big and small, past and present, and at that moment, she could feel her shoulders tensing up as a prelude to a headache.

Sharon seemed to sense the negative vibes emanating from Kara and cleared her throat to get Laura's attention. "We're fine…but…uh, I think I heard the caterer talking about not having enough champagne for the reception."

Kara mouthed "Thank you" to Sharon as Laura dashed out. Sharon just smiled and got up to leave herself.

"I've got to go make sure that Hera hasn't spilled anything on her dress. But here, Lee asked me to give you this."

She handed Kara a small slip of paper that was folded in half and made her exit.

Kara slowly unfolded the paper and saw that it was a note written in Lee's neat handwriting.

It read: "Kara, Just give me the word and I'll pull the car around the back and we'll make a run for it. Lee."

That made her smile. Leave it to her supposedly-soon-to-be husband to know when to make her laugh.

Maybe she could do this after all.

It would be exactly like Vegas the previous month.

Just with more people.

xxxxxxxxxx

Lee stared at himself in the mirror, trying to calm his nerves.

He couldn't fathom why he was so nervous.

Hell, they were already married.

Today was just going to be for show for those who didn't know they eloped (in other words, everybody). But his hands were shaking so badly that he couldn't fix his cufflinks, let alone tie his tie.

He fumbled with the black silk, trying again and again to even get halfway through the knot, but it was no use.

"Frak," he groaned, dropping his hands and hanging his head in defeat.

"Son? How are you holding up?"

Lee jerked his head up to see his father standing at the door in the mirror's reflection. "Dad! Uh, I'm fine. But, uhm…do you think you could…" he turned and gestured sheepishly at his neck and the length of fabric hanging from it.

Bill Adama smiled at his son's obvious discomfort at the prospect of getting married and wished that he had some words of wisdom to provide. But his marriage to Lee's mother had been anything but happy. Instead, a memory popped into his head as he began to tie his son's tie.

"Do you remember the first time you wore a suit and how I tied the tie for you?"

Lee just stayed silent, nervously twitching, but he could tell that Lee was listening.

"You were so proud that you got to wear 'grown-up' clothes…probably gave your mother half of her gray hairs that night when you refused to get undressed afterwards."

Bill drew the tie into a perfect Windsor knot and then bent down to pick up the silver cufflinks lying on the table.

"But," he said as he fit the cufflinks into his son's shirt cuffs, "oh how your mother smiled when she saw you all dressed up for that party."

"It was as if she could see your entire happy future the moment we walked into the living room with you all decked out," he began buttoning up Lee's vest. "I know our marriage was far from perfect, but it had its moments that I will treasure until the day I die. And I know for a fact that you and Kara will have far more moments like those in your marriage than your mother and I did."

"There," Bill patted his son on the chest, checking to see that everything was set. "All you need to do is put on your jacket, and you'll be ready to walk down the aisle. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to make sure that Laura doesn't rip off the caterer's head."

A small smile spread across Lee's face as his father walked out. "Uh, Dad?"

"Yes, Son?"

"Thanks."

xxxxxxxxxx

"Are you ready?"

"Definitely."

Kara slipped her arm into Karl's and watched as the doors in front of them were opened.

At that moment, all eyes were on her. But she didn't notice or care. Her own eyes were tunnel-visioned onto the figure of Lee waiting at the end of the aisle.

And suddenly, her dress seemed as light as air and she was walking on a cloud.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Hang in there, Lee. It'll all be over in a few minutes," Bill said, giving his son a reassuring nudge with his elbow.

Lee just took a deep breath and kept his eyes focused on the vision walking towards him down the aisle and wondered what his father's reaction would be if he found out that it had been over for several weeks already.

xxxxxxxxxx

"Isn't this great, Lee?" Kara asked leaning into her husband. They were lost in their own little world as the reception went on around them. Their anxieties were now long forgotten.

Lee nuzzled the side of her neck and spoke into her skin, "Yeah, it is."

Kara pushed Lee back slightly so that they were looking at each other. "Can you believe that we've been married for a month and everyone thinks we're newlyweds?"

"Do you think we should tell them?"

Kara looked contemplative for a moment. But then shook her head and smiled like a mad woman. "Nah."

Karl's voice suddenly came booming out of the speakers. "Ladies and gentlemen…"

"Don't hold the mike so close to your face, you idiot!" Sharon yelled out to the amusement of the guests.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Karl said once again, softer this time. "I do believe it's time for Mr. and Mrs. Adama to have their first dance as husband and wife."

Cheers rang out among those gathered, while Kara and Lee exchanged knowing smiles.

Lee gently took Kara's hand into his own and stood up. "Shall we dance?"

"Yes," she said standing up. "Lets."

0000000000

Lee stepped out of the bathroom, damp from his shower. He was pulling on a t-shirt and a pair of boxers when Kara walked in with a far off look on her face.

He was wondering what she was thinking about when she stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Hey," Lee said, putting his own arms around Kara's waist.

His wife smiled at him and said, "Dance with me, Lee."

He smiled back and began rocking from side to side, neither of them caring about the fact that there was no music. They found a rhythm that worked for them and Lee was soon twirling a giggling Kara around their bedroom.

Lee dipped Kara and paused in that position and asked her the question that had been on his mind: "What were you thinking about?"

Kara simply said, "Our wedding."

"Which one?" Lee brought them back up.

She twirled out and back in so that her back was to his chest and her arms crossed in front of her. "Does it matter?"

Kara spun around so that they were facing each other and Lee pulled her in close.

She squeaked in surprise and involuntarily tightened her grip around Lee's neck when he dipped her again. This time so low that her hair brushed against the floor.

"Good point."

Lee smiled and straightened back up as Kara laughed into his neck. When she pulled back and looked at him with twinkling eyes and a shining smile, he couldn't help but lean in and kiss her for all he was worth.


	7. That First Anniversary

AN: Wow. It has been forever since I last laid eyes on this baby. But I needed fluff and it was slow in coming from you guys so I made it my own. Hope you guys need it as much as I do.

Lee slowly became aware of a tiny hand being pressed up against his lips and a small knee around the vicinity of his ear. It was when he felt the all too familiar sensation of drool sliding down his cheek that his eyes snapped open to see Billy looking down at him and Kara grinning widely.

"Good morning, Daddy," Kara cooed as she lifted Billy so that Lee could sit up.

Lee sat himself up against the headboard. "Good morning," he mumbled before letting out a huge yawn.

Kara moved to sit next to him and let Billy go to crawl into his father's lap. "About time you got up." She caught his lips for a good morning kiss.

"It's Saturday, Kara. People usually sleep in on Saturdays." But Lee was now wide awake and playing with their happily babbling son and the toys Kara had laid out on the bed.

"Yeah, well tell that to Billy. He's already changed and had breakfast." Kara leaned in and whispered her next words into Lee's ear, "Guess who gets to change him next."

The smile on Lee's face turned slightly pained. "Oh, we're going to celebrate the day you're potty trained, Billy."

Billy just smiled and handed him a brightly colored ring.

"Yeah well, we're going to have to wait awhile for that," Kara said. She rested her head against Lee's shoulder and received another ring from her son. He got tickled on his tummy in return.

Kara was sure that she could spend the rest of the day in bed and draw out this happy private family moment for as long as possible. But then her stomach began to growl and she realized that she hadn't had her breakfast yet.

"Feed me, Lee," Kara bluntly said into Lee's ear.

Lee turned his head away from Billy to see Kara attempting what she considered to be a cute pout.

He just rolled his eyes as he scooped Billy into his arms and got out of bed.

As the family made their way downstairs, a photo of Kara and Lee at the reception of his boss' fourth wedding caught Lee's eye.

The party itself had been nothing but an opportunity for the old man to parade around his latest dim bulb of a trophy wife, but they had danced the night away, having fun nonetheless.

In the photo, Kara was wearing a dark blue dress that revealed her slight baby bump while Lee was dressed in a black suit with a tie that was the same color as her dress.

His suit jacket had fallen open as he leaned over to be closer to his wife, the silver gleam of a fountain pen just visible in his inside pocket, while a gold chain and pendant hung from his wife's neck.

They were anniversary presents the two of them had exchanged on their first anniversary. Their real one. Not the one a month later that everyone else knew about.

Lee smiled down at where Billy was currently using his slobbery fingers to tug at the collar of his t-shirt.

"Did I ever tell you about what Mommy and I did on our first anniversary?"

0000000000

Kara could vaguely remember being in a good mood that morning.

She had woken up to the smell of chocolate chip pancakes filling the house, and walked into the kitchen to see that Lee had been in the process of preparing breakfast in bed. She remembered laughing and kissing away the disappointment on his face when he saw that she was up.

Then she got to work and her day immediately went to hell in a hand basket.

Mechanical problems and only one working plane meant that she spent her morning on the phone shuffling lessons around and she had the mother of all headaches by lunch.

She headed home early after coming close to punching the head mechanic after he managed to render the last plane useless. She flopped onto the couch, fully intending to unload Lee when he got home and forcing him to pamper her.

xxxxxxxxxx

Lee walked through the front door and saw Kara sound asleep on the couch.

She was frowning in her sleep and the wisps of hair that had fallen out of her ponytail lay matted against her sweaty forehead.

He gently placed a hand on her cheek. She stirred at his touch. Her eyes slowly opened to focus on his face.

"Tough day?"

Kara nodded, looking like a cranky little child on the verge of tears after a bad day at school as she shifted to find a better position on the couch.

Lee smiled comfortingly and softly kissed her.

"Why don't I go get changed and I'll come back down and rub your feet?"

That got him a small smile and another nod.

She called out to him as he made his way to the stairs, "Hey."

He turned and saw Kara's face scrunched up in confusion.

"Don't you have a dinner meeting or something tonight?"

Lee fought to hide his smirk before turning around. She had completely forgotten and he had a couple of phone calls to make. "It was cancelled,"

"Oh."

xxxxxxxxxx

Dinner that night was pizza and soda eaten on the couch with their feet up on the coffee table.

Lee quietly munched on his second slice while focusing on Kara's venting as she continued to graphically describe the shortcomings of everyone she worked with, having only picked up steam from the slow beginning she had as he rubbed her feet.

Finally, the profanity petered off as Kara ran out of things to say.

"Feel better?" he asked.

"Not really. I hate that place, Lee."

Lee wrapped an arm around Kara's shoulders and pulled her in close. She automatically snuggled up against her husband's solid body.

"You can always quit and find another school," Lee murmured into her hair. "Or you can start your own. We have the money and you've built up your reputation, so it wouldn't be too hard to attract students."

"No."

"What?" The finality of how she had said it even surprised Kara.

"No." Their bodies separated a bit so that they could look each other in the eye. "I think I'm done with flying. It's all I've known for so long and I want to move on now."

"Okay. So what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe I could just be a wife for a while."

They both snorted with laughter as they again moved closer together, knowing that there really was no way that Kara would stay home and cook and clean without one of them getting hurt within a week.

A comfortable silence settled over them before Lee remembered he had something to give to Kara.

"Wait a minute. I got you a present."

He got up and went to his hiding spot in the house and brought back a thin square package wrapped in light green wrapping paper that they kept around the house.

"Here."

Kara smiled as she reached out and accepted her gift.

"Thanks. But what's it-?"

She quickly turned red as she realized what the occasion was. Kara squeezed her eyes closed in embarrassment. "Oh gods…our first anniversary...dinner meeting…we had dinner plans and everything."

She groaned, dropped the box onto her lap, and covered her face with her hands. "I completely forgot."

"Hey," Lee put his arm around his wife's shoulders and pulled her towards him. "I know work's been tough."

"But still…Why didn't you tell me earlier?" Her voice was muffled by her hands.

He brought her hands down from her face and gave her a comforting smile. "I figured that the last thing you wanted was to be hassled tonight. Besides. We can do something fancy next month."

She just nodded and stared at the package in her lap.

"Well? Aren't you going to open it?"

Kara smiled once again and eagerly ripped off the wrapping paper to reveal a box from the same jewelers her engagement ring had come from.

"It's beautiful," she breathed when she opened the box to see what it contained.

Inside was a delicate gold chain, upon which a pendant of two dolphins swimming around a round cut diamond hung.

"Dolphins?"

"They remind me of you."

She smiled at the memories of a day trip they had taken to go see dolphins and killer whales perform just a few months before, and how those beautiful animals effortlessly moved through their element in complete synchrony. Much like how she and the man sitting next to her did in all aspects of their lives.

Kara pulled the necklace out of the box and held it out to Lee.

"Put it on for me?"

Lee took the chain from her hands and Kara turned around and lifted her hair up from her neck. He fastened the clasp and placed a kiss on the soft skin of the back of her neck before moving his wife's hands so that her hair fell freely down her back.

Kara turned around with an expectant look in her eyes.

"Well?"

"It's a good look on you."

That made Kara laugh as she fingered the pendant. She was wearing an old, worn t-shirt with holes at the hem and on the sleeves, and a pair of shorts. Her new necklace stood out in stark contrast with the comfortable shabbiness of her attire.

Then she remembered that she had gotten Lee an anniversary present herself.

"Wait right here. Don't move. Okay?"

Kara came running back with a package of her own in her hand. The wrapping paper around it had come from the same roll from their junk cupboard Lee had used to wrap her present.

She all but jumped back onto the couch next to him and held his present in front of his face.

"I didn't completely forget," she said gleefully.

Lee took the present from her, ripped off the wrapping paper, and opened the box that was revealed. Inside the box was a silver fountain pen that glinted against the light of the lamps in the living room.

"A hotshot lawyer like you shouldn't be using cheap pens you can buy by the dozen."

Turning it in his hands, Lee noticed the tiny delicate letters that had been engraved around the cap like a band. He smiled as he made them out.

"KALLA?" he asked, already knowing what it meant.

"Kara Adama loves Lee Adama."

He put the fountain pen onto the coffee table and pulled his wife to him, pressing their smiling mouths together.

"Gods, I love you." Their lips brushed against each others as they spoke.

"And you don't care who fraking knows, right?"

"Definitely."

They pulled themselves closer to each other so that their bodies were flush

Kara abruptly pulled back, just as Lee's hands made their way under her shirt and up her belly. "Wait."

"What?"

She quickly unclasped the necklace around her neck and hastily put it back in its box.

Lee looked at her quizzically, but she just shoved him backwards so that she was straddling him on the couch.

"I don't want to lose it," she said just before her lips came crashing back down on Lee's.

That was the last coherent thing either of them said for a long time.

0000000000

"…and then Mommy gave me the fountain pen I use all the time. And do you know what happened next, Billy?" Lee looked over his shoulder as he bustled around the kitchen preparing breakfast for his wife.

Kara shot him a warning glare from her seat next to Billy's high chair at the kitchen table. She knew her way around the kitchen and where all the sharp objects were, and Lee knew it.

But her husband was unperturbed and continued to talk as he stacked pancakes onto plates and brought them to the already set table.

"That was the night Mommy decided to quit her job as a flight instructor and begin to paint full time."

Lee smiled at Kara and began cutting into his breakfast and she began to do the same.

It was when she put that first bite in her mouth that he leaned in close and whispered into her ear: "That was also the night I decided to get the fireplace installed."

Remembering what they did on the living room floor that night and the pillow talk that followed, Kara could only blush with her fork frozen in her mouth.

AN: Absolutely nothing beats writing with a good fountain pen. Get one for yourself and the person you love. You will never use anything else to write. Ever.


	8. That Other First Anniversary

AN: Today's photo was inspired by my expression in an old photo of when a friend let slip that it was my birthday to the staff of a restaurant. To say that I looked pained would be an understatement

Clean up after breakfast was over quickly and Kara carried Billy over to the picture window in their living room and sat down on the cushioned bench so that they could see their street on this overcast day. A light drizzle was misting across their neighborhood, so on a day when yards were usually filled with the noises of shrieking children, it was unusually quiet.

Billy crawled out of his mother's lap and into the small gap between her legs and the window. His tiny hand slapped against the glass as he tried to figure out what was happening to the world outside.

Kara smiled when Billy looked up at her with his big blue eyes and made his 'What's going on?' noise.

"It's raining, honey," Kara said as Billy crawled back onto her lap, his mouth open in a little 'o' as if to say 'Look outside, Mommy'.

"Looks like we can't go to the park today."

"What was that?" Lee had finished up in the kitchen and was now leaning against the edge of the picture window behind Kara and Billy.

"Nothing," Kara said playfully as she shifted her legs so that Lee could join them on the bench.

Billy reached his pudgy arms out to his father and Lee obliged by plucking him from his mother's arms and settling the baby into his own lap.

"Would you look at that?" Lee spoke into Billy's soft hair as he bounced him up and down slightly.

Kara watched father and son together with a feeling of warmth spreading through her body, as it usually did. "Yup. Billy was just telling me about it."

"Was he?"

They both looked down at their son, who was once again staring transfixed at the water hitting and dripping down the window.

Then Kara noticed Billy's face scrunching up into that familiar expression, and as if on cue, Lee's nose wrinkled as the smell reached his nostrils.

Kara could only laugh as Lee looked at her, his expression imploring her to take pity on him this one time. But she just shook her head and gestured for him to get a move on.

She followed the path of the men in her life as they exited the living room, when one of the picture frames above their fireplace caught her eye. She didn't have to get up and take a closer look at it to know what was portrayed in the photo it contained.

It had been taken on the night of their "official" first anniversary. And much like their real one, it had not gone according to plan. They were looking straight at the camera with slightly strained smiles, with the arms of their unexpected companions around them.

What she remembered about that night was using every bit of energy she had to not pull a Starbuck in the middle of an extremely fancy restaurant, and watching the usually in-control Lee slowly fraying at the edges until they managed to get home.

But that had also been the night she'd told Lee that they were going to have a baby.

0000000000

She didn't know exactly when it started, but at some point even before either of them even acknowledged their true feelings, Kara began to actively wonder what the children of Starbuck and Apollo would look like.

Would they look like her?

Or would they look like him?

That was probably what scared her most about a potential relationship with Lee. With anyone else, she knew she could bail at any moment. But she could never leave if it was with him. She could actually see a future with Lee because she knew that she would grab on and hold on tight just as hard as he would.

That was why she ran. A mistake that she still occasionally gave herself grief for, because she could have had it all much earlier if it hadn't been for her cowardice.

But here she was, sitting on their bathroom counter, in their home in the suburbs, staring at a positive pregnancy test.

And all was right in the world.

Now it was just a question of how she was going to break the news to Lee.

xxxxxxxxxx

Kara let out a groan as she crawled onto their bed fully clothed. She stretched out covered her face with a pillow, more than happy to be home. She sighed silently as Lee came into the bedroom, continuing to apologize for how the night went.

"I swear, Kara, I had no idea that they would just invite themselves to join us like that-"

She let out another sigh, louder this time-but muffled by the pillow-and lifted the pillow off of her face to look at Lee staring at her from the foot of the bed. It took all of her self control to not laugh at the completely sorry look on his face.

It wasn't as if the debacle that had been their evening out was _completely _his fault. Sure, it was Lee who made the reservations at the restaurant for their "first" anniversary, but he couldn't have known that the Millers from down the street would arrive fifteen seconds after them, talk up a storm and ask for a table for four before either of them could get a word in edgewise.

"Give it a rest, will you?" Kara said with a touch of annoyance in her voice. "I'm not mad."

"Really?" Lee's reply sounded endearingly pathetic.

"Yeah. But if you keep talking, you're going to give me a fraking headache." She lightly tossed the pillow at his head and watched it softly bounce onto the floor.

"Sorry," Lee said with a sheepish smile.

He crawled onto the bed and Kara rolled over so that they were facing each other on their sides.

"Some anniversary," Lee muttered.

Kara shifted so that they were a little closer together. "It wasn't too bad."

"Only if you forget Bob's toast that the whole restaurant heard."

"At least we didn't have to pay for anything."

"Yeah."

A beat passed and they rolled onto their backs in a fit of laughter.

"Oh gods," Kara gasped out between giggles. "We're one of those couples now."

Eventually their laughter subsided and Lee toed off his shoes and got up off the bed to take off and hang up his jacket and tie.

"Next year will be better," he said with confidence as he fiddled with a hanger.

"Really?"

Kara had gotten off the bed to shed her own jacket. Lee took it from her and hung it up as well.

"Yeah. I'll fly us halfway around the world if I have to."

She smiled at the thought and sank against Lee's chest. The effort it had taken towards being polite to their dinner companions was finally catching up to her.

"That's nice," Kara mumbled, barely thinking about what she was saying. She was busier concentrating on how Lee's arms were holding her. "But I don't think it would be a good idea to go flying around with an infant."

Lee's "Huh?" woke her up again. She had just taken care of telling Lee about their baby without even knowing it.

She leaned back so that they were looking each other straight in the eye. "I don't think it would be a good idea to go flying around with an infant." A smile began to play at the corners of her lips, one that was reflected in her husband's mouth as well.

"Are you saying-?"

"I'm pregnant."

"We're going to be-?"

Kara just nodded, their smiles now bloomed fully across their faces.

"Yeah?"

"We're going to be parents, Lee."

Lee's arms tightened around her for the briefest moment, but then his eyes rolled to the back of his head, and he simply crumpled to the ground.

Kara stumbled in her attempt to avoid being pulled down with Lee.

"Lee!"

Her concern soon disappeared as she realized that her husband wasn't hurt and that he had just fainted.

Lee Adama, a man who could face down an entire squadron of Cylon raiders without blinking, had just fainted.

This was going to provide years' worth of ammunition.

"Did you just faint?" She tried hard to keep the laughter out of her voice but it was damn near impossible.

Kara helped Lee slowly sit up on the floor. He leaned back against the closet door, still disoriented.

His head rolled and his eyes slowly focused on her face. "What?"

"You fainted."

"No, I didn't," Lee weakly protested.

"Yes, you did."

"You're dreaming it, Kara."

"Then why are you on the floor?"

"I…slipped."

"No…it's sweet. You fainted when I told you that I'm pregnant."

"Alright…so I fainted," he was fully alert now, and fully aware of the pain he was in as well. "Ah, gods my head hurts."

Kara lightly ran her fingers through Lee's hair to make sure that he wasn't bleeding. She found a growing goose egg that drew a hiss out of Lee when her fingernail made contact.

She pressed a kiss to the bump. "Well here's a kiss to make it all better."

Lee turned his head to face Kara, and she looked at him, her expression suddenly looking young and vulnerable.

"Just don't faint on me when I'm in labor. Promise?"

"I promise, Kara."

"A baby…We're going to have a baby." Lee chuckled as realization sank in for him.

"Yeah."

He kissed her, long and sweet. "Gods, I love you."

"I love you, too."

Kara stood up and tugged at Lee's arm. "Alright. Let's get you into bed."

"Yeah."

They crawled under the covers, neither caring about the fact that they were still more or less fully dressed, and promptly fell asleep.

xxxxxxxxxx

Kara woke up the next morning with Lee spooned up behind her, their joined hands splayed protectively over her abdomen.

There was no doubt in her mind she could do this.

They could do this.

And more importantly: she wanted to do this.

Raising a family with Lee. There was nothing she wanted more.

She'd realized that when she saw that test.

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A ringing phone snapped Kara out of her reverie.

"Hello? Oh, hi, Laura." She spoke into the cordless phone as she slowly walked around the living room.

Just then, Lee walked in with a freshly diapered Billy in his arms.

'Laura,' Kara mouthed as she listened to Lee's stepmother speak to her.

Lee settled down on the floor with Billy still in his arms. They played together as Kara continued to speak into the phone.

"Uh huh… Yeah."

Kara waved her hand to get Lee's attention and mouthed 'Dinner tomorrow?' Lee nodded before looking back at Billy, who was now wriggling and trying to get free.

"Of course we'll be there…Don't worry…See you then…Bye."

She placed the phone back in its cradle and plopped herself down on the couch and watched and laughed as her husband chased their now-liberated baby as he crawled at a lightning-quick pace across the living room carpet.


	9. Homecoming

It's been a while, hasn't it?

Today's installment was inspired by my relatives' reactions whenever my two youngest cousins come around for reunions and written because Mary McDonald reminds me of one of my aunts.

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Neither Lee nor Kara knew what really happened whenever the door to his parents' house opened.

One moment they were standing on the porch a happy family.

And the next, they were shell shocked statues.

Minus one.

"Hi!"

"Hey! There he is."

"Come to Grandma."

Little Billy was squealing, wriggling, and drooling in delight at the attention being showered upon him by his grandparents as they plucked him out of Kara's arms and whisked him into their home.

Kara and Lee followed at a slower pace, making sure that the front door was shut behind them before they went into where Laura and Bill were playing with Billy in their living room.

Kara immediately began rummaging through the diaper bag hanging off of Lee's shoulder and pulled out a cloth diaper.

"Uhm, sir? You should put this on…he's been spitting up a lot lately. Especially when he gets overexcited"

And so Billy promptly did. Splattering himself and his grandfather with the remains of his last meal.

Kara reached out to take her son, "Here, let me take him."

But Bill just waved her back and stood up.

"Don't worry, we've got it," he said.

"I've got a couple of new outfits I've been meaning to bring by," Laura added with a hint of glee in her voice. "Now we can see how he looks in them."

The threesome hurried off upstairs, leaving Kara and Lee alone in the living room.

Lee just shrugged and dropped the diaper bag to the floor. It was just another typical visit. He and Kara were both sure that Billy was going to be spoiled rotten by his grandparents, but he was going to learn so much from them as well.

"I'm thirsty," Kara said.

So the two of them made their way to the kitchen and Kara opened the fridge to begin rummaging through it while Lee checked the oven and timer to make sure that nothing was going to burn.

They walked out of the kitchen with their drinks and while Kara followed the sounds of Billy having fun back to the living room, Lee was distracted by a fairly large picture frame hung in the downstair's hallway.

It was a dual frame containing two pictures taken within twenty minutes of one another.

The one taken first was a bad photo by any standard.

Lee's blurred figure dominated most of it, his tired face and days-old growth of stubble blurry and brightly lit by the camera's flash. Behind his shoulder was Kara, who had been too preoccupied with the bundle in her arms to have noticed what was going on. But in this photo, just a scrap of light blue blanket was visible.

The other one was of better quality and showed Kara and Lee sitting on their living room couch, focused on nothing but the baby boy in her arms.

"You two never liked this photo," Laura suddenly said, surprising him.

"It's not that we don't like it," Lee stammered. "But couldn't you at least take it out and put something else in there?"

Laura shot him a look that he remembered from well from his years in elementary school.

"We like it," she said simply. "My house. My rules."

He really couldn't argue with that.

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It was a chilly day when they brought Billy home from the hospital.

Lee hurried up to the front door ahead of his wife and child, weighed down by a suitcase and a bag. His vision was obscured by the strings of the helium balloons Kara insisted on bringing with them.

"Hurry up, Lee," Kara's voice came from over his shoulder. "I don't want my baby getting sick."

"Hang on," Lee grunted.

He shifted the heavy load into one arm so that he could fit his house key into the lock. It turned easily and he used his shoulder to open the door. He'd begun to say: "Welcome home, Billy," when…

FLASH!

It was a combination of his old military training as well as his natural over-protectiveness that made him react so quickly, moving his body in front of his wife and child to protect them from whatever it was that was coming at them.

But then there were voices welcoming them home and those familiar figures that became sharper as his vision cleared.

"Dad! Laura!" Lee blinked hard to try and get those spots out of his eyes as he maneuvered his way into the house carry his heavy load so that Kara could enter with her even more precious bundle.

FLASH!

Another photo.

Laura smacked Bill on the arm and admonished her husband, "Stop, Bill, and help the boy out."

At his wife's look, the former admiral handed over his camera and took the suitcase from his son. Although Lee's load was now definitely lighter, the balloon strings still obscured his vision, and the balloons themselves threatened to tangle themselves with the ceiling lights.

"Kara?" Lee called from the hallway.

"Yeah?" she answered from where she'd sat down in the living room.

"Where do you want the balloons?"

Kara was too preoccupied with cooing at the cherubic face to really care at the moment. "Just put them anywhere."

"Okay!"

Lee motioned for Bill to follow him upstairs.

"You know, Dad…we gave you that key for _emergencies_."

"I think we could make an exception for my grandson's homecoming."

Kara wasn't aware of this exchange between the father and grandfather of her child. Laura had gone off to the kitchen to get her something to drink, so for the moment it was just her and Billy.

A soft smile graced her features as she watched and felt her baby shift in her arms while lost in his little dream world.

What sort of dreams did babies have when they were less than a week old?

Would they be about things as mundane as being fed, changed, and rocked?

But were such things mundane to someone so young?

And while she was contemplating such things, Kara softly traced the tips of her fingers along Billy's tiny little features. She paused at the bump of his barely there nose and smiled wider at the sensation of the small puffs of air from his breathing.

Just then a strong arm came around her shoulder as the couch shifted under her.

A soft kiss was placed just behind her ear, causing her to lean back into her husband's solid body.

She was enveloped in a feeling of safety and contentment.

Gods have mercy on the soul of whatever fraker tried to take that away from her.

"Thank you, Kara," Lee whispered into her ear.

She shook her head. "No…thank _you_.."

FLASH!

This time no one in this new little family really noticed.

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They were driving home later that night.

The interior of the car was illuminated by the light of the streetlamps and the headlights of the occasional passing car.

Kara looked across at her husband and thought about her baby fast asleep in his car seat in the back.

To think that she had grown from a self-destructive bitch trying to run away from her crappy life into a woman with a job she loved, with a loving husband who accepted her warts and all, and trusted her with his entire existence, and with a beautiful baby boy who she hoped she'd never disappoint.

She'd once tried to avoid all this; thinking that she would just be setting herself up for a fall she could never recover from.

How idiotic she had been.

Shaking those negative thoughts from her head, Kara reached over and took one of Lee's hands off of the steering wheel and brought it to her lips for a kiss.

He glanced over to where she smiling at him.

It was at this moment that she wanted to say something deep and meaningful, but that had never been their style. They never really needed grand gestures to prove to each other that they were together forever.

They always barely averted disaster every time they tried.

So instead she said, "You know what's nice about visiting your folks?"

"What's that?"

"No diaper duty."

They softly laughed, mindful not to wake the baby.

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AN: This is it for "Photos". Thanks for reading, everyone.

And be sure to review this final installment!!


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